Meridian Music Presents: Andy Strain

Our next concert will be a special tribute performance by Andy Strain in memory of his mentor, Toyoji Tomita. In addition to being a stellar trombonist who performed many times at Meridian, Toyoji was an accomplished landscape contractor who worked with the youth in the Meridian Interns Program to design and build the small Cordelia Neal Garden at 535 Powell Street.

Trombonist Andy Strain befriended Toyoji at Mills College in 2006. The two worked and performed together after Toyoji hired Andy as manager of his gardening company, TPT Gardening. In 2008, Andy took over Toyoji's work with Meridian teenaged interns in the garden after Toyoji's passing.

Andy will remember his friend Toyoji with a solo performance that will include a storytelling of "The Bremen Town Musicians" by the Brothers Grimm.

Andy Strain was involved in musical theater throughout his school years in Lincoln,Nebraska. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts in music performance he spent five years in southwest Germany earning a German Masters degree in trombone literature and performance. He performed in various orchestras and ensembles around Germany, Mexico and Switzerland. He has toured internationally with singer/songwriter Joanna Newsom and with experimental musical theater groups. He has been a featured soloist with Lincoln's Symphony Orchestra for which he wrote and performed a program for families and young people. Working with and performing for young people is Andy's passion and he combines his love of music and theater in storytelling to inspire imagination and creativity in children of all ages.

About Toyoji Tomita:

Toyoji studied trombone at the Juilliard School of Music and the Curtic Institute of Music. In 1976, he won First Prize in the Gaudeaumus International competition for Interpreters of Modern Music in Rotterdam, Holland. Living in Paris, France for the next three years, he toured Europe extensively both as a soloist and as a member of the Ensemble Musique Vivante, directed by Diego Masson. During this time, he worked with John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Vinko Globokar. He received an MFA in electronic composition from Mills College in 1986 and co-founded the Mills College Didjeridu Ensemble.